Under Your Skin
by TheLilyPad
Summary: Fitz and Simmons are infected by alien tech and how to deal with the changes it brings to their lives. Probably lots of fluff mixed with more serious topics. M just in case
1. Chapter 1

_This is my first attempt at publishing a story in a very long time. I hope I can keep my attention span on this long enough to finish that story thats been burning a hole in my pocket for ages. I was inspired for the setup by another story, but I can't remember what it was called or who wrote it. If you can figure it out leet me know and I'll add credit where it's due. Thanks for reading, and feedback is welcome._

Chickens, that was it. Or vultures. Ward had been trying to figure out what it was that Fitz and Simmons reminded him of when they got excited about a new piece of tech. They were currently circling the device the team had brought back, occasionally taking notes or gently touching it with one of their "special device touching rods". He didn't know and didn't care, too injured to really pay attention. Chickens, he decided before limping upstairs to bandage himself up. Maybe he'd turn this into a way to teach Skye how to suture your own wounds on the battle field.

The lab was left in silence, with only the occasional soft metallic clink as one of the scientists reverently poked at the mechanism. It, and a few scraps of metal, were the only parts not incinerated in a small crash in northern Minnesota. Those scraps are currently in an airtight container being tested to identify the metal it was. The only reason this device wasn't in there with them was the small glowing patch of blue peaking out from a crack in it's hull. The whole thing wasn't half as big as Simmons fist and was composed of erratically arranged lumps and spikes. All in all it was terribly exciting.

"Switch" Jemma's crisp voice rang out abruptly in the silence of the lab for just a second before her and Fitz switched clipboards and looked over each others notes. They'd figured out at the Academy that often times they could be inspired to realize different factors when looking through each others minds.

"Do you _really_ think it could be a musical instrument? There aren't even holes in it?" Fitz's accent was only made sharper by the edge of distain as he regarded Simmon's with an incredulous look.

"Well it's _alien_ isn't it?! It could be a fragment of an instrument, or part of a mechanical player, like an alien walkman or gramophone. We can't rule things out just because it's not obvious." She shot back, eye brows raised. Fitz only harumphed and went back to looking at her notes. He wouldn't admit it, but in his excitement his first thought was some sort of extraterrestrial sporting equipment.

"Okay, now that preliminary observations are done, can we start testing it?" Fitz's voice was raised an octave with excitement, his accent thicker as he tried to resist grinning like a child. His glance up at Simmon's showed her bouncing on her toes, lips pressed together and eyes shining with equally matched glee. Their eye contact held for a second before they both leapt for their nearest equipment. Fitz went to grab the dwarf box, but Simmons beat him back to the device with a scalpel and a petri dish.

"First!" she yelled. Every time they had to take turns testing something, it became a competition to see who would start off. Simmons usually won.

"Damnit woman, you can't just prance around like that. You're like a gazelle, with your long legs, hopping about…make it quick alright?" Fitz set his case down dejectedly and Simmons stuck her tongue in his direction. It was soon replaced with her regular brilliant smile as she pulled her goggles over her manic eyes.

"You'll have your turn soon Fitz. I'm just taking samples." She soothed. Of course Fitz's disappointment was quickly banished as he leaned in to watch Simmon's hands deftly shave a curl off the metal. It was smooth, like cutting through a piece of warm chocolate; and settled softly into the dish she held below it. A shudder of scientific excitement passed through them both, like every time they worked with a new specimen. Simmons took shavings from a lump and a spike, making sure they stayed carefully separate on the dish.

"Who gets to start off today? Sleepy? Bashful?" Simmons stepped away from the table to allow Fitz and his robots space. As he tapped away on his monitor, she carefully sealed and labeled her dish in a flurry of numbers and letters that only they would understand.

"Oh no, for something like this Doc takes the lead." A little robot whirred into the air as Fitz spoke, hovering by his ear. Simmons hurried to his side to watch the monitor over his shoulder as Doc whizzed over to the device. Blue light shone down and instantly the monitor was alive and shining with readings scrolling across the screen at super speed. Fitz released an inadvertent giggle of delight.

"There's so much inside, and this is just X-rays. Imagine what we'll find with infrared, or magnetic, or even the olfactory?!"

"Or when we finally get it open! See with our own eyes the intricacies!" They began talking over each other, riling themselves up with excitement for their future experiments. However, in their increasing inattention, neither of them noticed that the small blue patch peaking out from the device had begun to pulse; its light growing stronger each time. Only Doc noticed, and tried to alert them by sending a big red warning message onto the monitor. A few seconds later it sent a blaring tone to accompany the sign. That snapped them out of their scientist trace in time to hear a sickly crack come from the device.

Suddenly there was a cloud of glowing blue dust billowing through the air, engulfing them instantly.

Proper warning alarms went off, shrieking as the lab shut down into quarantine mode. Red lights started to flash and door slammed shut. Simmons could hear Fitz coughing, desperately trying not to inhale the substance. She grabbed his hand and they stumbled away from the cloud, trying to find a clear spot in the lab. They broke free like walking through a curtain, blinded and gasping. Simmons didn't let go of his hand as they sagged against a counter, panting. They had barely caught their breath when Fitz looked up at Simmons.

"Showers, now." Simmons was coated in bright blue splotches of an alien substance that they hadn't even begun testing, and he could only assume that he shared a similar fare. Simmons locked eyes with him and her lips parted in a tiny gasp. Then like that they were dashing to decontamination pod in the corner of the lab, shedding clothes as they ran.

Simmons thanked god that she'd worn slip ons as Fitz struggled to kick off his high tops. Both of them shed layers like mad men, pausing their run only to pull off their trousers. The door had swung open on their approach, designed to get them inside and away from everyone else as fast as possible. It snapped shut behind them, instantly turning on the scalding water at full blast. Had they been anyone else, the two might have taken a minute to be awkward about being wet and in their underwear in such a small space. But it would be quite a fib to say that this was the first time they'd had to run decontamination together. At least with the last times they had known what the substance they were scrubbing off was.

Industrial strength, gritty soap was sitting in pockets in the wall, which they grabbed and started scrubbing. The blue dust was resistant to their efforts, leaving stained patches on their skin that they desperately worked on.

"Here, let me get—" Fitz didn't bother to finish his sentence as he started scouring her hair, furiously trying to get the substance out of her long brunette locks. She spun around to let him get the parts of her back that she couldn't reach and bent down to reach the tops of her feet, which the dust had settled upon. Fitz pulled back the strap of her bra and tried to be careful with the skin on the back of her right shoulder, as he remembered the unfortunate sulfuric acid incident that had left that skin permanently scarred and delicate. She straightened up, flipping her hair out of her eyes.

"Let me get you." She said while pulling on his arm to make him pivot. Fitz had steel rods in his elbow from an experiment gone wrong when he was eleven that kept him from being able to reach certain parts of his lower back. He scrubbed through his matted curls as she roughly ground the soap into the muscle next to his spine. Blue spots still remained on their arms and faces, but if any particles had gotten through their layers, they were eradicated. Both of them ran through the pre-regulated checks in their minds of what to do when contaminated by a foreign substance.

"Decontaminate" Simmon's ordered the shower, and the water instantly shut off. Close on its heels came a very fine grey powder puffing aggressively out of holes in the walls. They both started patting themselves down as the fog began to settle.

"I must say, this stuff certainly smells better than the last time. Remember Doctor Sherman's lab?" They hadn't had time to panic as they were scrubbing, necessity taking over. But now that the precautions they could take had been taken, Fitz could feel nervous adrenaline start to seep into his blood. He hoped small talk would keep Simmons from the same fate.

"Oh yes, that horrid day before finals week. You know I did tell Harry not to mix an acid with a base." She kept her voice light, but Fitz had spent enough time with her to hear that her vowels had gotten higher. She was scared too.

Once the dust had settled the air vents turned on, like a thousand hair dryers on high. The powder that covered the two was blown off in the whirl wind. They both shook out their hair, trying to remove every particle from their bodies.

"Here, you missed a bit." Simmon's hand was clearly shaking as she reached up to brush dust away from behind Fitz's ear. Her hand lingered, fingers brushed over an offensively blue patch on the side of his neck, eyes unfocused. Her pupils were starting to constrict with dread when Fitz reached up take her hand.

"Hey now, we're gonna be okay. No jumping out of planes for us this time." His reference to her previous alien disease made her eyes flash up to his, terror flooding them for a second before calming. No matter what happened, Fitz was with her and making jokes, so everything was going to be alright. He always made everything okay.

Their fingers were still interlocked, resting on his shoulder when Coulson's voice sounded over the coms. "Are you guys okay? The lab is in quarantine so we can't get in. Give us verbal confirmation that you are in fact alive or we're breaking in."

"Yes sir! We are alive and as of this moment not debilitated with alien horrors." Simmons called out. The two kept their hands interlocked as they punched in the all clear code to make the door open.

As children, Fitz and Simmons had been rather accident prone. Not due to clumsiness, just due to the sheer amount of dangerous situations they put themselves in. When the year 12's curriculum at the local secondary school was boring at 11 years old, they'd had to find some other way to fill the time.

Simmons came from a distinctly upper middle class family. While she wouldn't have called them _rich_ per se, they could afford to buy her equipment to engage in experiments well beyond her age range. While everyone else in the third grade science fair was making baking soda volcanos and drawing diagrams of cells; young Jemma was splicing bamboo DNA into an endangered Arizona Agave plant in an effort to make it more resilient. Unfortunately the fair was being judged by a bunch of primary school english teachers and Jemma was given a "Thanks for Participating" sticker. When her research and developmental techniques were used to save the food source of a dying breed of indigenous rodent; she would anonymously send that news paper clipping to the teachers who had told her she had a "neat idea."

Of course, no matter how advanced her intelligence, Jemma was still a child and was more than once sent to the emergency room for experiments gone wrong. Her attempts to grow skin grafts for her scraped knees had ended in her accidentally developing a new strain of gangrene and being put in quarantine for two weeks. Of course she was able to create an enzyme boosting formula while secluded that regrew her original skin and gave her back the ability to kneel.

Fitz, however, hadn't been quite as lucky growing up. Raised by a single mother in the Estates, there was not a lot of supervision to give him while she worked. By the time he was 6 he had realized that he didn't have enough legos to make a airplane that would actually fly, and had to go out in search of better tools. There was a scrap yard nearby his complex that he credits both his discovery by S.H.I.E.L.D. and his delinquent behavior as a young teen. You could find anything in there, from the stripped cars abandoned after drug busts to a refrigerator from the 60's that may be slightly radioactive. It was there that he shattered his elbow trying to make a perpetual motion machine into an energy producer.

To Fitz it was like a playground that he wouldn't get kicked off of for climbing on the wrong parts. However, like a playground, he was not the only one playing there. Fitz didn't have many friends as a child, especially when they found out that he was taking college courses online during lunch. So when older teenagers showed interest in the little creations he made it was a monumental time for him. To this day Fitz is easily swayed by people he likes, but as a preteen that meant occasionally breaking into cars to get more pieces for his inventions. The time he got picked up by the cops for accidentally blowing up a tennis court landed him in a cell for the night as his mom was working a night shift and couldn't get him. It was also the night he completed his first Ph.D in engineering and piqued Fury's interest. Of course he wouldn't come forward until two years later, when Fitz had earned his second.

Red lights were still flashing brightly but thankfully the horrid alarm had been turned off when the team arrived. Jemma peeked out the little pane of glass in the door into the lab. The dust cloud seemed to have settled, but now everything in the lab was coated in an aggressively blue film. It would take weeks to clean everything, let alone test this new substance, and most of their carefully maintained and calibrated equipment would have to be destroyed. Simmons chose to focus on that instead of the fact that she was in the same position as the microscope.

Fitz's fingers gave hers a small squeeze, before dropping down off his shoulder. Her hand followed to hang loosely by her side. Beep beep beep; she punched the release code into the panel of numbers set into the wall of the decontamination unit. Her hands were steady but as soon as the doors opened, trembles slid into her fingertips. Coulson, May, Skye, and Ward were all outside the lab, faces pressed to the glass as they watched the blank pod in horror. The communal sigh of relief when Fitz and Simmons emerged looking like themselves could be heard through the thick glass.

"What happened here? Do you have any thoughts on what this substance might be?" May asked while tapping an alert for a medical team into her phone. Her voice and demeanor never changed but it was the most words anyone had heard her speak all day.

"No, he were just starting our preliminary tests when the device opened up. It may have been activated by Doc's X-rays or perhaps experienced some kind of rapid oxidization due to our atmosphere." Fitz and Simmons had emerged from the pod and were standing as far from the invading blueness and possible. Their discarded clothes were scattered all over the floor, covered in blue patches and smears. With the immediate danger looming but distant, the two were now able to feel anything besides the cold swallow of fear that had been freezing them. 'And speaking of freezing' Jemma thought as she wrapped her arms around herself. As Leo and her were both from the great gloomy North, they kept their lab at comfortable sweater temperature. However slightly damp and mostly naked wasn't ideal. Fitz had clear goosebumps all over his arms and chest, but was holding his arms firmly by his side. Jemma knew that was his tense pose. She wanted to reach out and wrap her arms around him, both for warmth and her own reassurance that neither of them were dead; but it didn't feel right. That kind of contact was too intimate for the glass box they were in.

Barely a minute after May had sent out the call, hazmat suits were pouring in. Some were carrying bag and bins all marked with the biohazard symbol, others a variety of medical equipment. Those ones made a beeline for Jemma and Leo, virtually attacking them with a variety of instruments. Suction cups were stuck all over their bodies, hair, saliva and skin samples were taken, and at one point a thermometer was jabbed into Fitz's mouth so unexpectedly that he bit the offending hand and almost broke the little glass stick. The two stood there motionless for the better part of 20 minutes, staring blankly into space and trying to ignore the fact that their entire lab was being carted away. The device itself was stuck in an airtight container, but left in the room as they needed to continue their experiments if they were going to figure out what had just happened.

Finally the room was clearing out and the final diodes were removed.

"We can't find any immediate effect on your person. For the moment you two appear to be safe, but I recommend constant observation and check ins for the next few weeks. You can continue with your daily schedules, but should anything change or you feel even the slightest bit off; quarantine yourselves immediately. Keep the bus on its highest possible observation and tracking abilities directed at you two." The voice from behind the suit was muffled, but kind. Their hand patted Fitz on the shoulder.

"I'm glad there appears to be nothing wrong, you two had us worried for a while there." Then they picked up their equipment and turned away. The pair barely had a second to left out a breath of relief before the team came barreling in through the now unlocked doors. Skye was the first one in, and grabbed the two of them in a rib crushing hug.

"If you guys try anything like that again I'll kill you." She said as she released. Coulson had two black robes draped over his arm, which he handed over. Jemma gratefully shrugged into hers, feeling distinctly better for being less exposed. Fitz pulled the collar of his up to his ears, trying to wrap himself as tightly in the fluff as possible.

"You two should probably stay in the medical ward overnight, just in case." Coulson said. Like May, his face gave away nothing, but he had adopted his fatherly tone. The duo just nodded and started shuffling out of the lab; Skye and War following them as Skye began a barrage of concerned questions. May and Coulson took a moment to look around the lab. Blue stains still covered every surface.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" May looked him in the eye as she spoke.

"We have no way of knowing. I just hope my fears are wrong. But theres nothing more we can do at the moment except figure out what that thing is." Coulson looked sideways at the offending object, glowing innocently inside its box. As they walked out of the room May's voice sounded steelier than usual.

"Then we've got a lot of work to do."


	2. Chapter 2

Its always easy for Jemma to tell if she's dreaming. No body's hands look right and she can never stay on her feet, often tumbling over while trying to pull on a sweater. As frustrating as that is at the time, she rarely remembers her dreams anyway so it never makes a difference. She hoped not to dream at all as she lay down on the white bed in the medical ward, Fitz just a few feet away from her. After what they'd just been through, neither felt particularly chatty and wanted to sleep as soon as possible. It was a comfortable silence they had; as much as they talked over each other, they could understand one another just as well without words. She could practically feel his worry and concern for her and himself as she pulled the blankets up to her chin, and curled into a tight ball.

Fitz was still sitting on top of his bed, hugging his knees to his chest, thinking hard about something or another.

"Try to sleep Jemma, I'll turn off the light soon." She nodded, and though he wasn't looking at her, she knew Fitz saw. She was on her side facing him, tucking her head into her chest and squeezing her eyes shut. She knew sleep would come soon, as she'd never had trouble sleeping, but worried about what she'd see. Her stress dreams always involved her teeth falling out or zombies, and neither of those were what she needed after a day like they'd had.

After leaving the lab, they had gone to the medical ward to undergo even more invasive tests. Now that the immediate danger had passed they could start trying to figure what effect, if any, the blue dust would cause. They had gone on for hours before they had been released to go to bed. Skye had been with them for a while before the medical staff got irritated and told her to get a medical degree or get out. She had left, grumbling to Ward about wanting to go hit things.

Jemma wished that hitting something could just make her problems go away. The last time she had been this scared was when she'd put herself in the hospital as a child attempting to regrow her damaged skin. At least then she knew that something was wrong, instead of having to be on edge with no idea if anything was going to happen or not. She stole a glance up at Leo as her eyes started getting heavy. He was still sitting up on his bed, only slightly less tense than before.

"Don't fall asleep like that or you'll hate yourself in the morning." She whispered to him, closing her eyes. She was asleep before she knew if he took her advice.

Emotionally drained from her day, blackness fell almost immediately. Dreams flickered in and out of existence, never fully congealing or disrupting her. Then the lab formed around her in her mind, taking on the soft fuzzy quality that so many dreams have.

She was standing there with Fitz, just as they had been that morning. Somethings stood out clearly, like the pink argyle of her sweater and the open toolbox on the counter; while others faded into a blur.

The dream continued around her, with her speaking involuntarily and moving through motions without knowing why. It continued exactly as her morning had up until the moment Fitz's computer started blinking. At that moment Fitz pushed her under the lab table, shielding her with his own body. The blue cloud erupted and filled the room, covering them both. She couldn't see anything in the room through the fog, but then suddenly it was back to normal. They were taking their notes and speaking softly like nothing had happened. The alien lump sat innocently on their lab table as it had before. This time, when Doc's alarm started flashing, Fitz suddenly picked up the device and threw it across the room. It burst as it flew, trailing blue smoke behind it before thunking into the wall. The blue cloud spread, covering both of them as they tried to run to the other side of the lab.

And they were back. Simmons dream replayed that moment over and over again, each time Fitz reacting differently and each time enveloping them in the alien dust. The hazy quality of her dream remained and she never questioned why this was happening, but she would store this dream in her memory for far longer than it takes to wake up.

Fitz slammed a box over the device, but the blue cloud leaked out from under it none the less. He threw water and various other chemicals at it, but they did nothing to stop the eruption. Even when he just grabbed Simmons and ran as soon as the first alarm showed up they were still enveloped in the cloud. Simmons didn't fully understand this dream, as it seemed so clearly though out, yet she had so little control in it. Fitz grabbed a microscope and smashed the device before they even started testing it and the blue cloud puffed out of the broken cracks; then her dream faded to black.

Jemma was known for sleeping like the dead, at least compared to Fitz who would sometimes get so wrapped up in his thoughts that he forgot he wasn't actually sleeping. That being said she was having such a weird sleep that when she woke up she wouldn't be able to tell if she felt rested or not. Her dreams kept revolving around Fitz and the device and the strange blue cloud that had shown up to ruin her day. At one point Jemma felt like she was waking up before she rolled over and the darkness enveloped her once again.

She and Fitz were frantically running from the blue cloud, stripping clothes as they went. In her dream she wasn't as efficient as in real life, and was still reeling from trying to get her sweater over her head while running. Her and Fitz hit the side of the pod, still trying to shimmy out of their clothes. Fitz was tugging at his belt while she pulled off her shoes and stripped off her pants far easier than they had come off in real life. She pounded her hand on the button to open the decontamination pod's doors and saw Fitz was still trying to undo the buttons on his shirt. Grabbing the front of it, Jemma pulled, ripping the fabric open and tearing several buttons off on the way. He shrugged it off and jumped into the pod with her; door snapping behind him. Despite the usually sluggish nature of Jemma's dreams, they moved quickly, scrubbing themselves as they had before.

"Here, let me help." Fitz's voice was clear and she could almost feel his hands washing out her hair as he had earlier that day. She straightened up, flipping her hair back as she did so. His hands scrubbed her back, careful around her scarred shoulder. But unlike before, dream Leo slowed down, his movements no longer jerky and hectic. Simmons never heard the soap fall from his hands, but his fingers were gently pulling her bra strap down her shoulder; the knuckles on his other hand trailing down her spine.

She'd had dreams like this before, even about Leo; but never ones so vivid. When she woke up she would attribute it to the close resemblance to her days activities, but it would stick in her mind for far longer than any other dream had the right to.

Lips pressed down on her shoulder where her strap had once been, and Leo's curly hair tickled her cheek. One of his hands rested on her hip and he carefully pulled her up against his body. Jemma didn't resist. In her dream the pod was smaller than it had been in real life and she reached out and put a hand against the wall for stability. The hot water was still rushing all around them, but all she could feel was Leo's body pressed against her back and his lips kissing the spot where her neck met her shoulder. His teeth flashed out and he nipped the spot; a move that she loved in the real world. Of course Fitz in her dreams would know all about that kind of thing. He nipped again, working up to her ear. When he bit gently on her earlobe she let out a small whimper. Unbeknownst to her, her sleeping form made the same noise.

Her dream self pushed against Leo's body, letting him draw her in even closer. The fingers on one of his hands curled into her hip while the other traveled up the sides of her ribs. His touch was solid as he slid that hand up to rest on her sternum, his thumb resting between her breasts in a way that made her heart rate quicken.

"Jemma" he whispered in her ear, and suddenly she was facing him, lips latched onto his. Her hands were on both sides of his face, fingertips pushed into his soaking wet curls. Fitz and Jemma had kissed before, but never seriously. It had always been during drinking games in the boiler room or once as a prank on their friend; but never had they kissed like this. Jemma backed up until she hit the wall, Fitz following until he was fully pressed against her again. He braced his arms on the wall against her head as she kissed him for all she was worth. One of her legs wrapped around his hip, pulling him even closer to her.

"Oh Leo, this should be real" her dream self breathed into his mouth. His hand wrapped around her thigh but he pulled back, suddenly looking confused.

"Isn't it?" He asked. And the dream dissolved as Simmon's eyes opened. She was back in the med bay, and it was still dark. The clock on the wall read 4:47 am.

"Ugghhhh" she softly groaned, rubbing her eyes sleepily and rolling over. Her sex dreams were always weird, but that one had been especially so. She'd had more control over herself than usual; and hearing Fitz ask that question right before she woke up made her feel confused and off. Resolved to fall back asleep and return to more normal dreams she rolled over and looked at Fitz. He'd taken her advice and not fallen asleep sitting up, but he didn't look particularly comfortable. His face was pink and his brow was furrowed, facing her as he lay half rolled off his back. Simmons hoped his dreams were more peaceful than hers as she snuggled back into her pillow to catch a few more hours before the dreaded next day.

Nonetheless morning came the way it always did, leaving Fitz and Simmons to rub the sleep out of their eyes as Coulson came in to look over their tests.

"Rise and shine my blueberries; I have good news." Coulson's usual light tone was only acceptable due to the mugs of tea and coffee he presented to the sleep rumpled pair. Leo looked down at his hands to see them still streaked with blue. He could only assume that his face and hair held the same fate.

"And what's this news?" Jemma was always far too perky in the morning for Fitz's taste, who liked a good long time to become sociable after waking up. Of course she had already managed to smooth her hair and was sitting up straight on the edge of her bed, waiting for Coulson's answer.

"During the night there was no strange activity or developments of almost any kind. There were some strange readings for a bit, but they match to the REM patterns of particularly intense dreams. If you two experienced that then I'd say we can check you out today." He had his arms folded across his chest and was rocking forward on his toes they way he did when he was nervous or excited. It was written on his face how clearly Coulson wanted them to be okay.

"Oh yes, I did have some rather vivid dreams last night. They must have been triggered by the days events because they all revolved around yesterday morning in some way or another. How about you Fitz?" Jemma tried to direct focus from herself before anyone wanted to know where she'd been during the night. For some reason Fitz turned rather pink and ducked his head into his coffee before muttering "Yup, crazy dreams, super acute." Of course whenever he was tired his accent got even thicker and Simmons had to translate his mumblings to Coulson.

"In that case I think you two can be released back into the wild. We'll have to tag you of course so you don't get shot by poachers." Simmons dropped her head, before raising it again with a smile.

"Of course sir, we'll happily be chipped and tagged. It'll make it all the easier to track our vitals and record any potential symptoms" Simmons was without a doubt too cheerful in the mornings, Fitz decided. He was trying hard not to be cranky this morning, but was finding it increasingly difficult. He'd spent half the night up worrying about what he'd done wrong to cause the device to explode, and then once he'd fallen asleep it was an understatement to call his dreams vivid. He knew that he couldn't control his dreams, it was just a random assortment of information his brain tried to read all at once; but he'd be lying if he said it hadn't been a really good dream. Waking up to find himself in a sterile room had been a tad disappointing.

The show must go on, however; and Fitz wasn't about to let one neurological fluke keep him from learning everything he could about that cursed device. Today they were going to take much stronger precautions but their work had to continue as normal. It was no longer just an attempt to figure out what the mechanism was; now they had to find out how it reacted to human biology. It was like racing against the clock if the clock was the metaphorical Father Time's device.

Fitz sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair; Coulson had continued talking to Simmons but the words had gone right over his head. With a curt nod Coulson turned and left the room, already starting a conversation with May who was in the room outside.

"Well, no time like the present, eh Fitz?" Jemma was smiling down at him brightly, if not slightly manicly. Fitz ignored her and opted to slump to the side, face first into his pillow. He could vaguely hear her gathering up her belongings before he was forcibly rolled over.

"C'mon you slug. Theres no time for your nonsense." Simmons was using her serious mom voice now. That meant Fitz either had to cave or prepare to put up a fight. He chose the former and swung his legs over the side of his cot.

"Alright Jemma I'm up, but theres always time for nonsense." That got a smile out of her, which was enough to give Fitz the energy to start another long day.

"We need to contact the Hub, should this go south they need to know."

"We are not telling anyone about this unless we have reason to believe it will get worse. They'll be locked up like lab rats on the off chance that anything might happen. We need them here and working on the device and a potential cure."

"And what if it is worse. What if there was some sort of alien disease in there and now we're all infected just by breathing the same air as them. I'd rather the Hub know and have precautions set up; because, need I remind you, that we have _no idea_ what was in there. I'd like to be prepared by the time we find out."

This argument had been going back and forth for the better part of 20 minutes now. Coulson had insisted that they turn the Bus into a moving quarantine for Fitz and Simmons despite May's protests.

"And the last time one of ours followed protocol to the T in a situation like this, she flung herself from the plane. That same girl is at risk again and you want to wrap her up in red tape before she can find out if she's even in danger?!" Coulson was always protective of his scientists, and in this situation he felt particularly responsible. Seeing Simmons fall from the bay doors to try to protect her team still came back to him occasionally. He'd be damned if one of his team had to face disaster like that if he had a way to prevent it. With the Chitauri virus they'd wasted so much time before Simmons started showing symptoms and it had almost been too late for her. That would not happen again.

"Sir, I understand your concern but I-"

"No May. Unless we have concrete reason to get them involved, the rest of SHIELD stays in the dark. Thats an order." May stared up at Coulson, one eyebrow just barely cocked. She gritted her teeth together and nodded ever so slightly. She hated when Coulson got like this. They'd both trained for so long to trust in the system, and yet whenever one of his team was in trouble Coulson was chomping at the bit to throw the rule book out the window.

"Thank you May, I do need you on my side for this. Now if you'll excuse me." Coulson's tone softened and he put an hand on May's shoulder briefly before moving past her. She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes, moving towards the front of the plane. If this alien cloud didn't kill her, vexation would.


End file.
